Hotel guests always appreciate a clean room and comfy bed, but what about noise from the people next door? Sound travel between rooms was a critical issue for Project Manager Kevin Wood when building an extension to his Elme Hall Hotel.
As a result he chose 215mm thick 3.6N/mm2 H+H Celcon Blocks for internal separating walls and 100mm versions for the building envelope, all using traditional mortar.
“Using H+H and their aircrete solutions was by far and away the best option,” Kevin said. “Nowadays we have flat screen TVs on every wall and guests bring iPods, speakers, laptops and the like with them, so the transmission of sound is a big concern. With high footfall, hotel rooms need to be robust too, as guests are not renowned for treating them as they would do their homes. Aircrete has properties that fit in with both of these requirements.”
The building is now completed and exceeds Building Regulations for transmission of sound and airborne noise. Kevin added: “This excellent resistance to airborne and transmitted sounds provided by the solid aircrete walls eliminates the usual complaints of adjacent room noise present in so many hotels.”
Elme Hall Hotel is a large Georgian style hotel located on a three acre site in Cambridgeshire. The project began with demolition of existing outbuildings located in the hotel. This was followed by construction of a standalone building comprising 34 bedrooms. Known as “The Lodge”, this extension has been built to cater for extra demand at the hotel with all the modern facilities expected of today’s hotels.
Stuart World, H+H National Construction Manager said of the development: “For years there has been a preconception that to build a wall with good sound insulation properties you have to have something which is heavy and dense or made up of a number of layers.” In truth, this is not the case, as aircrete as a material is inherently excellent at reducing airborne sound travel, especially when used in a solid wall configuration.
Stuart added: “What many people don’t often realise is that air bubbles chemically introduced to our Celcon Blocks during manufacture actually help breakdown noise. Elme Hall hotel is perfect evidence of how well they work.”